Daily Average of 580,000... Far Below Previous Years
The theater industry is still suffering from the aftereffects of COVID-19. The Lunar New Year holiday also failed to act as a strong remedy. The daily average number of moviegoers was only 588,362. According to the Korea Film Council's integrated ticketing system on the 25th, the number of moviegoers visiting theaters from the 20th to the 24th was 2,941,810. This is far below the usual Lunar New Year holiday figures. In 2019, 8,046,078 people visited theaters (February 2?6), and in 2018, 5,873,621 people did so (February 14?18). The daily averages were 1,609,215 and 1,174,724, respectively. This year’s figure is about half of the latter. Although the number more than doubled compared to last year’s average of 273,309 (total 1,366,546 from January 29 to February 2), when COVID-19 spread severely, there was no clear sign of recovery.
Excluding the long-running hits "Avatar: The Way of Water" and "The First Slam Dunk," the situation is almost stagnant. During the Lunar New Year holiday, the former, in its 7th week of release, attracted 535,605 viewers, while the latter, in its 4th week, drew 508,778. The films "Negotiation" and "Ghost," which aimed to capitalize on the holiday, failed to gain traction. They attracted only 963,895 and 332,458 viewers, respectively. The former’s market share exceeded 30%, but it was far from enough to revive the sluggish theater industry. The latter can be considered a complete failure. If things continue this way, it might even be surpassed by "Hero," which is in its 6th week of release. On the 24th, the difference in audience numbers between the two films was only 12,486.
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
